Carlos Santana has been reunited with a former bandmate whom he hasn’t seen in more than forty-five years. In 1967 percussionist Marcus Malone was a member the Carlos Santana Blues Band. Malone and Santana lost touch when the former got in to trouble with the law and was subsequently jailed.

Early in December Stanley Roberts, a reporter with the San Francisco Bay area news station KRON 4, interviewed a homeless man in San Francisco for a news piece, and during the process the man told Roberts that his name was Marcus Malone and that he used to play in the Carlos Santana Blues Band.

Roberts did some fact checking, and it turned out to be true. As luck would have it, Santana saw the news report, and actually went looking for his former percussionist. When he was unable to find Malone, Santana’s manager contacted Roberts, who arranged a meeting between the two long lost friends.

“It’s an honor to be in your presence, man,” Santana said when the two met. “I always cherished you. You and your family were so gracious to us.”

In a later interview with KRON 4 Santana said: “I want to offer him a place to stay in an apartment, get him some clothes, and just get him out of the street.”

But Santana’s generosity doesn’t stop there. The guitarist also revealed that he wants to record with his former bandmate again. “I want to offer my brother Marcus Malone an opportunity to record on the next album with the original band, with Greg Rolie,” says Santana. ” We wrote a song for him called ‘Magnificent Marcus Malone.’ We want him to play on it and we’re going to start, Lord willing, in January or February. So I would like to get him some congas so he can get his hands hard again because he hasn’t been playing the congas in a while.”

Malone can be seen wearing a sombrero on the cover of Santana’s Live At The Fillmore 1968 album.

Check out this video of the touching reunion between Santana and Malone: